Chris Maxwell

Published:11:20Monday 06 April 2015

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A MAN ordered his teenage girlfriend to get in his car or he would “smash her face in” after turning up outside her mother’s home.

Mark Kerton had told his 17-year-old partner to get a taxi to his address during an angry phone exchange – but later turned up at the address in Hebburn, beeping his car horn and shouted for her to come out.

When the girl got in the 23-year-old’s car, her concerned mother called in the police.

The teen told police she wasn’t distressed by Kerton’s action, and declined to support a prosecution against him.

But he ended up appearing before South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court after being charged with using threatening or abusive words to cause harassment, alarm or distress to her mother.

Kerton admitted the offence, and was told his behaviour would have left his partner’s mother “terrified and distressed”.

“She says her daughter and the defendant are in a relationship which she has concerns about. On March 6, she was at home with her daughter when Kerton argued with her daughter on the phone and told her to get a taxi to his address.

“She didn’t want her daughter to do this.

“He then turned up in his car, beeping the horn and shouting at his girlfriend to come outside.

“Her mother heard him telling her to get in the car or ‘I will smash your face in’.

“Her daughter got in the car and left, and she called police.

“He was aggressive and abusive, which caused her alarm and distress.”

Paul Kennedy, defending, said: “Clearly her mum on this occasion had concerns about her getting in his car and driving away.

“He accept she would’ve been alarmed by this and he pleads guilty on that basis.

“She has concerns about the relationship, whether founded or not.

“A conditional discharge would be a way to keep an eye on him.”

Lorraine Montgomery, chairwoman of the magistrates, said: “Her mum would have been terrified and distressed by the words you used, which I won’t repeat here.”